Two Go to France (1 Viewer)

DBK

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We are off to France today, catching the ferry to Roscoff then pottering round Brittany for a while until the weather eventually changes as I am sure it will, at which point we will head south in the hope of some warmth.

As with our trip to Spain earlier this year I will use this Forum as a way of keeping a diary and unfortunately this does mean I will be inflicting my musings on France on fellow Funsters. My profound apologies in advance but comments and suggestions will be greatly appreciated. :)

Just need to have an early lunch and then get to the ferry port, it's only 20 minutes away...
 

Southdowners

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Were going over in a couple of weeks... looking forward to reading your blog! How long are you going to stay for?

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DBK

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Had a really smooth crossing from Plymouth on the Amorique. There were waves but no swell, I guess because the wind has been blowing from the north for a day or so. So the boat was so steady you could havechad a game of snooker on it had you brought a table.

Unfortunately, not much to see on this crossing in the whale department, unlike the ferry to Spain but I had hoped a few common or bottlenosed dolphins might have turned out to welcome us, but it was not to be.

What there were a lot of were MHs, very few tuggers but scores of folk like us and when we left the ferry port I led a convoy of about 5 MHs to the aire just outside Roscoff. It was dark when we arrived and looked solid with MHs packed like books on a library shelf but we all squeezed somehow in along the back.

We will do some shopping at the Super U in Pol de Leon tomorrow then head on a bit. There is a nice aire at Pol but if this one is anything to go by it will be packed. Need to get going to somewhere less popular!
 

Allanm

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We are going back to the U.K. tomorrow, we saw loads of GB reg vans driving down between Abbeville and Rouen today on our trip up from Normandy, are there any motorhomes left at home?
Have a great time, Brittany is our favourite part of France, loads of nice Aires along the north coast down to Brest.
 
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Feb 24, 2013
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Au revoir DBK, bon vacances

Looking forward to your discoveries :)

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Momo

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Happy Holidays DBK! (y) Looking forward to following your blog!:)

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Welsh girl

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We're in Ploubalay, France,weather quite nice now, might bump into you,be nice to put a face to the name?
Is a lot busier here than Normandy.
We're making our way to spain shortly after our trip to Jersey.
 
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DBK

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We made the obligatory first day trip to a supermarket this morning, the Super U in Pol de Leon then by a very circuitous route courtesy of Messrs Garmin we visited the Cairn de Barnenez, which is on a peninsula a few miles north of Morlaix.

The cairn was constructed around 4,500 BC and predates the oldest of the pyramids in Eygpt and is about a thousand years older than the West Kennet long Barrow on Salisbury Plain. It is the largest neolithic burial mound in Europe and apparently the second oldest building in the world, though describing a pile of rocks as a building does seem to stretch the meaning of the word "building" somewhat.

The cairn was only discovered in 1955 when the buriel chambers were discovered after locals had started removing stones from the mound, something which they had probably been doing for a while but had understandably kept quiet about as it is not often you find a million or so stones on your doorstep all neatly piled up and each just the right size for building houses and barns.

Inconveniently, the mound was built on top of a small hill so short of a drone there is no way of getting a good photograph of it as you are always looking up.

OI000015.jpg


This picture below in the little exhibition shows the plan of the mound.

OI000019.jpg


The first picture was taken looking at the right hand end of the mound. The pale area in the top left of the plan is the part removed by the phantom quarrymen or stone rustlers of 1955. The area they exposed now looks like this.

OI000013.jpg


Their excavations revealed a number of dolmens.

OI000008.jpg


Elsewhere, such as in Wales or Cornwall these dolmens were covered in earth which over time was washed away by rain, leaving the main stones exposed. In this rocky landscape they obviously found it easier to use rocks to cover the burials. The result of course has been the burials have remained covered and a number of interesting artifacts were recovered when the other tombs were explored.

The Cairn of Barnenez is worth visiting, there is parking though the approach road is narrow in a few places, but it is easily reached and being so close to Roscoff it seems a shame not to go there. Miser alert: €5.50 entry charge!

After more trips round minor agricultural roads (must look at the SatNav settings) we stopped at the Port de Diben aire. #97 in All the Aires or #3472 in CamperContact. This is a very well positioned aire overlooking the harbour, free parking but €2 for a jeton for water from the Fisherman's Co-op next door.

View from our MH.

OI000032.jpg


We went for a short walk after lunch, this area is part of the Granite Rose coast and indeed it does have big pink(ish) rocks, which doesn't really show in the picture below so you will just have to take my word for it until I can take a better picture!

OI000027.jpg


On top of the rocks in the foreground you might just make out a white plaque, on which is written:

20 Juin 1940
MX Oiseau de Tempete

Which had me Googling away when when we got back and a little story came to light.

On the 18th of June 1940 General de Gaul made a speech in London, on the 19th German troops entered the Morlaix region, where we are now. Then on the 20th the fishing vessel Oisaeu de Tempete (Bird of Storms) left from here with 8 men on board heading for England to join de Gaul.

The MX in the name is the designation for fishing boats from Morlaix, in the same way PL is Plymouth or PZ is Penzance.

There is another part of this story just a few yards (metres?) from where we are parked now, another little plaque which looks like this.

OI000030.jpg


The title says "To all Frenchmen" and under that it says "France has lost a battle but it will not lose the war". It is dated " Londres, Juin 1940" and carries de Gaul's signature.

So, quite a day, from 4,500 BC to the dark days of 1940.

And it was someone's birthday today - but not mine!

OI000023.jpg
 
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Mar 31, 2015
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Wonderful - we cross the tunnel a week tomorrow and are heading for Brittany and the Loire armed with some vineyard recommendations - 10L boxes look good
 
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Jul 29, 2014
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Had one for 5 years many moons ago. Now starting again.
Really enjoying your trip in my mind.
I always think it rather strange that Charlie d G did a runner to the "safety" of London suburbs and then came back in a sort of glorious return to his people who had stayed and suffered. Perhaps that is too simplistic a way of thinking.
Have a lovely birthday celebration and I look forward to the next episode.

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DBK

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more interested in what booze you bought...
Bought a couple of 3 litre boxes which unlike most French wines are just called by the grape, for example the red says "Gamay". No doubt they are made for ignorant tourists but the boxes are very convenient and the white fits neatly in our new cool box. The downsize of course is it is harder to measure how much you are drinking!
 

Judge Mental

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Bought a couple of 3 litre boxes which unlike most French wines are just called by the grape, for example the red says "Gamay". No doubt they are made for ignorant tourists but the boxes are very convenient and the white fits neatly in our new cool box. The downsize of course is it is harder to measure how much you are drinking!

What coolbox did you get is it electric? I have an old 3 way camping gas Box fridge the must be over 30 years old...bring it sometimes and use it for drinks. It has dodgy thermostat and near freezes everything.... Perfect:)

Have fun with an eye on the barometer!
 
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JackieP

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Loving your reports. I'm off to Roscoff next Wednesday and hoping to head to St P de L so all very useful too.

Have fun and keep us posted.

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Scout

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Its cool here this morning in saumur so I hope you packed a jumper.
 
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DBK

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What coolbox did you get is it electric? I have an old 3 way camping gas Box fridge the must be over 30 years old...bring it sometimes and use it for drinks. It has dodgy thermostat and near freezes everything.... Perfect:)

Have fun with an eye on the barometer!
After much deliberation and lying down in dark rooms hoping the urge to buy one would pass (it didn't) I bought a Dometic CDF 26 compressor cool box. If you crank it right up the whole box becomes a freezer to -18C but we have set the dial to +5C and this is great for drinks and salads etc. Having done a trial it takes 8 big cans of beer and two bottles of wine and still has a little compartment left for butter or a few tomatoes. It cost a eye-popping £304.95 but I think it is worth it and this was a good deal as it is also on sale for around £400 elsewhere. It only runs for a short while every half hour or so and takes around 5 amps when it does though it would run for longer of course when it is really hot outside. The box is a perfect fit between the front seats when we stop at night. You can get much bigger ones but where to put it at night was the factor so we went for a smaller one. I'll post a photo later.
 

Judge Mental

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After much deliberation and lying down in dark rooms hoping the urge to buy one would pass (it didn't) I bought a Dometic CDF 26 compressor cool box. If you crank it right up the whole box becomes a freezer to -18C but we have set the dial to +5C and this is great for drinks and salads etc. Having done a trial it takes 8 big cans of beer and two bottles of wine and still has a little compartment left for butter or a few tomatoes. It cost a eye-popping £304.95 but I think it is worth it and this was a good deal as it is also on sale for around £400 elsewhere. It only runs for a short while every half hour or so and takes around 5 amps when it does though it would run for longer of course when it is really hot outside. The box is a perfect fit between the front seats when we stop at night. You can get much bigger ones but where to put it at night was the factor so we went for a smaller one. I'll post a photo later.

we bought ours, (bust up a bit but still works fine) originally for camping and kept it:)

doubt these as efficient but £170 (cant seem to add links - its not the first time?)

Amazon product ASIN B004M8BRW6

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Bertie Bassett

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Good to see a thread I know I'm going to enjoy DBK! We're crossing on Sunday and then on down to Arles for a couple of weeks and we'll be following this thread with great interest.
 
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MotorhomersRus

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On our way home now today from France Luxenborg Germany Holand.
So will be following your blog
Hope you have a fab time

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